[REQ] fast performance of an exported pdf on slow pc

Question

I often insert a lot of images in my indesign documents on a single page. I need to make them of the same height and then resize the image accordingly.
For example to align all the images horizontally in a neat way, I change the height manually [for e.g. 60mm] in its dimensions box. Is there a way to do it quickly? Eg. I select all the images and put their height 60mm and their height becomes as specified and they get resized accordingly?
Same is the requirement of images for width.
I made an A1 size sheet for my architecture presentation. It only had rectangles, text boxes and images. I have an i5 processor in my laptop with ati sunpro graphics card of 2gb capacity. I exported the file as pdf and it opened fine on my machine.
Unfortunately, the printers shops have core 2 duo pcs with low ram,and the file didn't open on their pcs. I then exported my file as jpg with 300dpi cmyk [as here in India, printers are all cmyk]. The image still got very heavy and got printed really slow on hp 500 42 printers.
how can I make the file perform faster on slow pcs so that I don't have to face this problem?

Answer 1

For the first part of your question, there is a feature in InDesign called "gridify" (I'm not sure which version introduced it, but give it a try and you will see if you have it). If you place several images onto a page at once, you can depress your mouse button and hit the up/down/left/right arrows before you lift up your mouse button. Each tap of an arrow key will add a column or row to a grid (gridify), and all of the images will fit either horizontally or vertically into the image frames that are created in this grid. If you want them all to be the same height, drag out the grid frames wider than they need to be. After the frames are in place, but while they are still selected, you can fit the frame size to fit the content by using Object>Fitting>Fit Fit Frame to Content (or Option Command C). If you need the images to be the same width, drag the image frames taller than they need to be.
You could also create an image frame before you place the images and go to Object>Fitting>Frame Fitting Options>Fit Content Proportionally and set the frame to scale the image to fit when placed. Once you have your frame, you can go to Edit>Step and Repeat and set the number of rows, columns, and the space between (check the Preview button to see how it will look before you hit OK). With your image frames in place, place a group of images at once by clicking into each frame.
That's two options, but there are probably others to consider.